Thinker
Thinker is one of the twelve power classifications created by the PRT still in modern day use.“I do,” Weld nodded. He’d memorized it as a rhyme, as suggested by his old boss. Maybe that had been the intention from the start: Mover, Shaker, Brute and Breaker. Master, Tinker, Blaster and Thinker, Striker, Changer, Trump and Stranger. - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.1 Thinkers have powers related to knowledge, skills and enhanced perception.Possesses enhanced knowledge, skills and/or perceptions beyond any reasonable norm. Includes clairvoyance, precognition, skill acquisition, enhanced hearing and enhanced sight. - PRT Master Reference - Classifications - Thinker Thinker powers do not necessarily make an individual smarter, although increased intelligence is considered a Thinker power.It is worth stating that thinker powers do not make individuals smarter as a rule, though they can. In fact, if one doesn’t count those who had their intelligence or wits augmented by their power, thinkers might well be less intelligent on average, given they’re drawn from the subset of the population that got themselves into the stressful situations in the first place. - THINKERS, document by Wildbow.Combat Thinker - Processing powers that apply to fighting and harming others. Result from violent thoughts, abstract handling of past violence. Zone Thinker - Powers that interact with or sense environment. Result from contextual/situational/abstract environmental/ambient factors. Quick Thinker - Thinker powers that operate faster or allow more mental actions and processing. Farsight Thinker - Awareness extending beyond usual bounds, senses, & spaces. Includes clairvoyance & other tertiary awareness that extends around other powers. Target Thinker - Thinker power focuses on a singular subject, person, thing, or subject. Triggers involve obsession & fixation. Offhand Thinker - Power doesn't grant thinker power directly to self, but to others or operates through a vector. Fallout Thinker - Thinker power ripples outward, is time delayed, or cumulative over time for optimal effect. Has time (not lead-up to trigger, but within the trigger) as a factor. Scatterbrain Thinker - Thinker power affords some flexibility to how power is utilized, managed, or focused. Versatility focused. Trigger has confusion or missing information as a factor. Meditative Thinker - Thinker power uses sleep, periods of rest, deep focus or downtime to take advantage of or deploy. Social Thinker - Perceptive powers involve people, relationships, or emotions. Trigger tends to involve abstract (not real) relationships. Sense Thinker - Powers operate through senses, through mutation or general expansion of sight/hearing/touch/taste/smell. Proficiency Thinker - Powers grant skill or talent. - Supplament by Wildbow. Methodology Thinkers might use their abilities to gather or receive information,Thinker - Advanced perception, knowledge, data-collection, or skills. Thinkers manifest from emotional or mental strain, reaching a crisis point in a short time. - WD Rulebook: Character Creation such as various types of clairvoyants including post-cogs, pre-cogs, peri-cogswildbow: Tattletale isn’t a precog, but a pericog. Toast: “Pericognition:” the ability to know around things. I like that. She builds a framework of inference around the subject at hand, and her power fills in the gaps, working inward towards complete understanding. Except when she misses her target from the start and the circle forms in the wrong place, resulting in bad times for Lisa. -Wildbow comment on Cockroaches 28.5 and more.As there’s myriad types & conventions of, say, invincibility, there’s a number of subcategories and focuses of precognition or clairvoyance. Tattletale, for example, could theoretically be classified as a subtype of clairvoyance. So I’d recommend one not jump to any conclusions about what the thinkers out there could do to monitor the use of powers in relation to economic manipulation. That said, it’s noted in this chapter that precogs tend to be somewhat unreliable. I don’t think it would be too ridiculous a notion to imagine them working in small groups, supporting one another’s weaknesses and expanding on one another’s leads. All it takes is for one to notice an anomaly and then the others can expand on that. - comment by Wildbow on Interlude 14.y Alternatively, they are able to process the world around them in a specific way.Combat thinkers. Worse in a lot of ways than fighting someone like my mom, with her energy weapons. She could slice a grown man in half with her weapons. A combat thinker? There were ones who could hammer at you psychologically by mirroring mannerisms of people you knew or feared, ones who could hit your nerves or arteries any time, with any strike or weapon they had at hand, and there were ones who could win most fights without trying, because they had the fighting skills without working for those skills, combat precognition, or they saw the fight move at a hundredth the speed. - Excerpt from Pitch 6.5 A Thinkers powers might manifest in variety of different ways, but are currently sorted into seven distinct types:The following pages detail the various types of thinker and what triggers lead to that particular type. - THINKERS, document by Wildbow. Trigger events Trigger events usually produce Thinkers when the parahuman experiences large amounts of emotional and mental strain while a crisis point is reached in a short period of time. This contrasts with Tinkers, where issues remain unresolved over a large amount of time before they culminate in a crisis moment.Tinker - Building alien or advanced technology. Thinkers arise from solutionless problems over long periods, culminating in crisis moment.. - WD Rulebook: Character Creation Crushing revelations, moments of mental or emotional anguish, great fear, anger, and self-loathing are frequent causes of Thinker triggers.Thinker triggers involve a component of mental or emotional stress. The stress arises and culminates in a relatively short period of time compared to tinker triggers, in a moment or in the course of hours or a few days. Crushing revelations, moments of mental or emotional anguish, great fear, anger, self-loathing and the like are frequent causes of Thinker triggers, but the mind is a complex thing and there are a great many other causes that can factor in. - THINKERS, document by Wildbow. Common combinations with other ratings Thinker is an extremely common secondary classification,The following pages detail the various types of thinker and what triggers lead to that particular type. Because thinker triggers are so very commonly secondary powers, and because many thinkers are liable to have a breadth of awareness rather than one focused power, the individual power listings break things down into specific powers by scale. - THINKERS, document by Wildbow. often in support of other powers, as such, Thinker is not truly tied to any other classification.Split Thinker One mid-tier execution of a thinker power and then a weak to mid tier execution of a non-thinker power. There should be overlap in theme/sentiment where possible. Secondary Thinker Has a distinct, powerful (high tier) execution of a non-thinker power, and then gets a secondary thinker power. - THINKERS, document by Wildbow. Use by the PRT The PRT employs a large amount of Thinkers in their operations. They are used to vet applicants,Applicants are subject to spot drug and background checks, as well as scanning by PRT-approved thinkers. - PRT Master Reference - Employment in the PRT but were also used to screen individuals during the outtake process for the Madison Quarantine Zone.Three years after the incident, the PRT restarted the process of outtake, each individual undergoing a background check and screening by a PRT-approved thinker. To minimize the effects of cumulative influence, the PRT rotates out directors and teams. - reddit comment by Wildbow. Watchdog, a PRT-subgroup focused primarily on preventing economic and political disruption by parahumans, employs think-tanks of Thinkers, using them to sift through large amounts of information.Watchdog - A group based primarily in San Francisco with offices elsewhere, Watchdog is focused primarily on preventing economic and political disruption by parahumans. Think tanks of thinkers are employed to sift through large quantities of data using their individual talents, while non-parahuman staff works on ways to gather the data in question. Watchdog regularly launches investigations or sends individuals as a sort of internal affairs within the PRT, sometimes overt, sometimes covert. - PRT Master Reference - Subgroups in the PRT PRT countermeasures In direct engagements, the PRT-teams often targets Thinkers first, considering them the highest priority when all numbers are assumed to be equal.Thinker capes, all numbers assumed to be equal, take the highest priority in engagements. Threat level 2+: Team is notified as to thinker classification. Communication should be limited and the thinker should be cut off from teammates where possible. Encrypted or coded communications may be necessary. Failing that, the operation may need to be silent (noncommunicative team). Threat level 5+: Maximum disruption to the senses, with flashbangs and nonlethal truck emplacements put into regular effect. All possible measures should be undertaken to keep the thinker threat from communicating. Pre-prepared thinker countermeasures (false information) should be entered into play. PRT thinkers should be contacted remotely to maximize counter-thinking. Threat level 9+: Contact the head office to discuss needs and resources available. - PRT Master Reference - Classifications - Thinker Trivia * It's not uncommon for the use of Thinker powers to cause migraines.Teacher had once specialized in renting out capes that could shape, limit or refine powers, or using his power to do the same. Thinkers would go to him for a subordinate capable of ridding them of their perpetual migraines, or capes would seek him out to achieve more power at the expense of control, or vice versa. - Excerpt from Interlude 28 * Precognitive abilities often interfere with each other.“My power is a form of precognition,” she said. “Unlike most such powers, other precognitive abilities do not confuse it. That said, there are certain individuals it does not work against, the Endbringers included.” - Excerpt from Crushed 24.2 Site Navigation Category:Terminology Category:Power Classifications Category:Thinker